Why Mindray Medical Sank Then Rebounded

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of medical device marketer and manufacturer Mindray Medical (NYS: MR) dipped as much as 18% shortly after the market opened only to break even following very mixed first-quarter results.

So what: For the quarter, Mindray noted growth across the board. Sales jumped 21.1% to $219 million for the quarter with China sales rising a brisk 26.8%. The big news was that despite this growth, gross margin and net income ($0.34) both dipped from the year-ago period. That's bad news considering that Wall Street has expected Mindray's revenue to be closer to $260 million and profits to be $0.44 for the quarter. Mindray also forecast non-GAAP EPS growth of at least 13% over last year, implying EPS in the neighborhood of $1.58 -- also slightly below the range currently noted by analysts.

Now what: This really wasn't a poor quarter by Mindray, but it was hampered by more unrealistic expectations of growth by analysts and by Mindray's inability to grow its bottom line. Investors need to face the reality that Mindray's growth is slowing down and that it's turning to acquisitions to drive growth now. That's not a bad strategy, but it's not helpful if it doesn't drive earnings growth. If the stock remained down, I may have considered adding it to My Watchlist, but at these levels it still has too much built-in risk given its lack of earnings growth in the first quarter.

Craving more input? Start by adding Mindray Medical to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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